Thrun, Moynagh dominate again!

Another Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship is in the books and another win was had by the Minnesota duo of Joe Thrun and Jim Moynagh—their third-straight and fifth overall.
This time around it wasn’t even close as Thrun and Moynagh brought in the biggest catch each day of the tournament and won by nearly an eight-pound margin.
So how do these guys consistently put up such a dominating performance?
Having gotten to know them over the years, there are a few things that really stick out to me that, in my opinion, makes them very strong competitors on Rainy Lake.
The first thing is they work extremely hard.
Last week during pre-fishing, I was launching my boat each day at the same ramp as Joe and Jim. They always had the best parking spot for their truck because they were the first ones at the ramp every morning.
In fact, I even tried to beat them to the ramp a couple of times, getting there before 6 a.m., but they were always there first.
And at the end of my day, Joe and Jim were never in yet. They would drive by my hotel room every night just before dark.
I have a pretty good bead on most of the other anglers at this tournament and these guys were putting in the most hours on the water during practice, for sure.
You never see them fishing. In all the years I’ve fished the FFCBC, I’ve only seen these guys fishing once or twice. They’re not fishing all the same points, reefs, and humps the majority of the field fishes. They really look for—and find—fish in locations that most anglers overlook.
This likely comes from Jim’s experience as a touring pro and fishing against the best bass anglers in the world on a regular basis. To be successful, you need to find fish in locations that are not being regularly attacked by other anglers and that is one thing they do well.
The word has gotten out on where they have spent a lot of time fishing the past two years and it definitely was somewhere I would not think to look for smallmouth bass.
As for me, teamed with John Peterson from Bemidji, Mn., I had my best-ever finish at the FFCBC this year, taking home third place. We were extremely happy because we managed to bring in a pretty solid catch each of the three days under some very challenging conditions.
We caught fish this past weekend on a whole variety of presentations—everything from topwaters, spinnerbaits, and jerkbaits to small finesse ones.
The thing that made it so challenging was the unstable weather. Small storms rolled through Sunset Country all week and temperatures fluctuated dramatically.
Smallmouths, probably more than any other fish, really like stable weather and we just didn’t get it.
A huge thanks to all the volunteers and people who made the FFCBC such a fun tournament again this year. The crowds were amazing and the energy was fun at the final weigh-in on Saturday.
That tournament is the highlight of the year for a lot of people, so thanks for making it happen.
Hopefully, the weather straightens up for everybody fishing in the KBI next week on Lake of the Woods.
I’m going to begin my pre-fishing this week in our attempt to defend the title. We are looking forward to it!